From Sofia: Guided Seven Rila Lakes & Rila Monastery Full-Day Tour

About this tour

This full-day excursion is ideal for athletic people who want to combine a hike to natural beauties with a visit to Bulgaria’s most visited tourist attraction, the beautiful Rila Monastery.

You will depart Sofia for the Rila Highlands, where you will enjoy a modest hike through what is undoubtedly the most notable portion of the mountains, the 7 Rila Lakes. After a 90-minute transfer, you will arrive in Panichishte, where you will take a chair lift to the Rila Lakes lodge.

The 7 Rila Lakes are a series of glacial lakes located between 6,900 feet (2,100 meters) and 8,200 feet (2,500 meters) above sea level. You will enjoy amazing vistas as you travel through its pearls, such as The Eye, The Tear, The Kidney, The Twins, The Trefoil, The Fish Lake, and The Lower Lake, which are surrounded by steep peaks and deep valleys.

Depending on your fitness level, the route can be changed on the fly to choose more gentle or steeper paths. After seeing all of the lakes, drive for around 90 minutes to Rila Monastery, the largest and most important icon of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.

The monastic structures, which include a church and a chapel with remarkable murals, are hidden behind the 65-foot (20-meter) walls. The 14th-century Hrelyo Tower, the 5-domed Birth of the Blessed Virgin Church, and the ancient monastery kitchen from the 19th century are among the monastery’s most prized historic and aesthetic monuments.

You will also visit the monastery’s extensive museum, which houses a valuable collection of antique manuscripts and papers, charters, and icons, as well as an ethnographic exhibition of fabrics, jewelry, carpets, and wrought iron artefacts and a library with over 16,000 books.